The Busan Biennale Organizing Committee has appointed Amal Khalaf (UK/ Bahrain) and Evelyn Simons (Belgium) as co-artistic directors of Busan Biennale 2026.
 
Amal Khalaf is a curator and program director who has played key roles in major international exhibitions, steadily expanding her influence in the contemporary art world. In 2019, she served as co-curator of the Bahrain Pavilion at the Venice Biennale—one of the most prestigious contemporary art exhibitions globally—and recently participated as a co-curator of Sharjah Biennial 16, which concluded this past June.
 
In addition, she is currently preparing for the opening of “Ghost 2568: Wish We Were Here”, a video art festival set to open this October in Bangkok, Thailand, where she is serving as the artistic director. She worked as a curator at the Serpentine Galleries, a major contemporary art institution in London. Since 2019, she has also served as the Program Director at Cubitt, a curatorial platform in London, UK.

Evelyn Simons is an independent curator based in Brussels, Belgium. From June to September 2025, she curated These Branching Moments, currently on view at Fotomuseum Antwerp (FOMU). From 2019 to 2023, she served as the artistic director and curator for the visual arts and performance program at “Horst Arts & Music,” Belgium’s renowned electronic music festival.
 
As a female curatorial duo, they proposed a collaborative plan that enlivens the city by utilizing diverse spaces across Busan, South Korea and interweaves multiple artistic genres. Starting from the Busan Museum of Contemporary Art, their curatorial vision unfolds at both indoor and outdoor locations throughout Busan, resonating with themes of resistance, healing, care, and hope, and echoing a collective lament for our times.
 
A defining feature of their proposal is its focus on a multi-arts exhibition that encompasses site-specific installations and visual art alongside time-based performances and music.

Joon Lee, Executive Director of the Busan Biennale Organizing Committee remarked, “Their proposal, themed 《Dissident Chorus》, received strong support from the jury for offering five artistic practices that examine the world with a fresh, unique lens —through memory, empathy, healing, resistance, and solidarity, all of which will be mediated by the body, sound, and water.” He went on to add, “Given their emphasis on community engagement and collaborative practices, we will fully support the realization of their vision.”
 
Meanwhile, the organizing committee set the theme of the open call as “An Art Platform Where the Local and Global Intersect,” and invited proposals from curators capable of developing an exhibition aligned with this vision. Approximately 70 individuals and teams from both Korea and abroad applied during the month-long open call held in May.

References

• 부산비엔날레조직위원회 보도자료 (Busan Biennale Organizing Committee Press Release)